Sonic Youth Lightning Bolt Collaboration
 

I was surfing soulseek the other day and came across three tracks that show sonic youth and lightning bolt playing together.

The tracklist is:
Disconnection Notice
Song 2
White Cross/ 13 Monsters

Does anybody have any background info on this ? When did these performances happen and under what circumstances ?

How many of you have heard of these tracks ?

can you share these files with us? would love to hear it!

it's one of those things at lightning bolt gigs where for a while, they'd start playing while the band preceeding them was finishing their last song. they'd jam a little and then the bolt would destroy.

chabib:
Interesting fact. You don't see that often in shows of any kind.

dazedcola, I was at one of those shows. It was easily one of the best shows of my life. I wrote a lengthy review of the show on the old board, and as such it's long lost.

Lightning Bolt toured with Sonic Youth in 2002. The show I saw was in November of that year, at Irving Plaza in New York. That night the line-up was Black Dice, Sonic Youth, and Lightning Bolt (the night before featured Liars in place of Black Dice.) Sonic Youth played for nearly two hours, and Lightning Bolt went on after them.

While Sonic Youth were bringing their encore to a close (with a great version of "Inhuman"), Lightning Bolt began playing "Ride the Sky" from the floor. Needless to say, it was fucking insane. The extended outro to "Inhuman" was made to blend with the extended intro to "Ride the Sky".) The two bands played together for anywhere from five to ten minutes. It was hard to judge the passing of time during such a righteous moment. Even after the guitars faded, Steve Shelley kept the rhythm going.

Eventually everyone migrated over to the Brians. This was before 'Wonderful Rainbow' was released, so they were tinkering with quite a bit of that material in the show (a version of "Dracula Mountain" featured a one to two minute long Chippendale humming solo.) Aside from that, there were a lot of 'Ride the Skies' songs. I remember hearing "Assassins" for the first time and nearly peeing my pants. Chippendale jumped off of his seat and put his head and fists (Mario Brothers style) through the overhang, causing pieces of ceiling paneling to fall on us.

I recall running home that night. From the venue to the train, and from the train to my home. Without a jacket. The adrenaline was undeniable. And back then I still didn't wear ear plugs to Lightning Bolt gigs (they've toned the volume down a bit nowadays, I believe), so my ears hummed for days.

As far as the tracks go, I've downloaded several different versions from Soulseek, although none seem to actually feauture Lightning Bolt for more than a few seconds, if at all. Are your versions the genuine article? I think those particular tracks that you listed were recorded in Providence, if I remember correctly.


EDIT: I said "That night the line-up was Black Dice, Sonic Youth, and Lightning Bolt (the night before featured Liars in place of Black Dice.)" I meant to say that the night before featured Liars in place of Lightning Bolt.

that sounds insane

i want to hear this.

upps

double Post
sorry

Yeah this happened at ATP in 04 when SY curated the Sat. Absolutely stunning. It took most people (me included) 10 mins to work out what was going on...

well, they didn't really do that at atp.. much to my disappointment.
during the last song (mariah carey and the arhur doyle handcream) kim even invited them to start playing, mentioning their name, but they waited until sy were completely finished.

lightning bolt did do it the second time i saw them though, with monno, first drumming along with their last song and then completely taking over.

i guess the novelty ot the trick wears off after some time though.

I want to hear it! What are you waiting for dazedcola. Share! Share!

pokkeherrie, yeah, somewhere along the way Lightning Bolt stopped doing that. Another band that I saw them overlap with was Wolf Eyes. I have to say, that was a slightly different situation. One of the dudes from Wolf Eyes actually looked kind of jealous when the entire audience started swarming the drum kit, clearly more enthusiastic about Lightning Bolt.

Another notable collaboration of sorts occurred last summer at the First Unitarian Church show in Philadelphia. Lightning Bolt were playing with Afrirampo that night. It was insanely hot. Fog formed from the sweat, steam was rising off of everything, people were playing slip and slide on the floor using the collective moisture, the pools of sweat were mixing with bodily filth and shoe-dirt to form mud... Chippendale nearly got heat stroke from drumming in the middle of all of that. At one point he had to get up and get out of the crowd. Brian Gibson kept playing, and Oni and Pika from Afrirampo quickly stepped in and started drumming in his place. He was gone for nearly fifteen minutes, so they took over for quite a while. Eventually they handed drum sticks out to those of us close to the kit, and several audience members began drumming too. At this point Gibson was just noodling.

I have some pictures of it (not my own), if anyone's interested.

Well I can't seem to upload the tracks but if you want them just find me on soulseek, same username and they'll be in my files.

dude, don't remind me of that!!!! two of my favorite bands playing, i had the chance to see them and I MISSED IT!!!!!

i'm still bummed out about that one

sounds really cool. like the kinda respect lb had for the youth, didnt play til they finished! gonna see lb in dublin next month, cant wait!

ok,here's two of the songs

sonic youth w/lightning bolt - white cross 13 monsters

http://download.yousendit.com/269DB301417326F4

sonic youth w/lightning bolt- song 2

http://download.yousendit.com/31907BDF682C55E4

I also found out the show took place in Providence on 11/23/02

Thanks dazedcola.

holy cow! thanks dazedcola!

fucking hell! how cool does it sound! thanks for the tracks!

i want to see lb in dublin as well...can't wait, but i have to buy a ticket 2morrow before they will sold out, coz now i have a feeling they'll be gone soon.

can you share 3rd track - disconnection notice? Will be cool :D

here's the last track, it took a while to upload cause its so big.

sonic youth w/ lightning bolt- disconnection notice
http://download.yousendit.com/253598797487BD82

The most insane thing about Lightning Bolt has to be the first time I saw them.

This was one of the many times I went to see The Locust and Arab On Radar in 2000, this time at the Smell in Downtown L.A. While I was waiting outside, some kid was running around in a panic saying "Is Lightning Bolt playing tonight? Do you know? If they're not, there's no reason for me to be here." I didn't know who he was talking about, I thought "Lightning Bolt? Who are they?"

I filed in with the handful of people who arrived early and saw the set up...A drum set and a really huge amp rig...

Brian C. was already tinkering with his drum set and Brian G. was still hooking up his stomp switches...
The moment Brian C. made his first rounds around the drum set, I thought "This is going to be interesting"

They started playing and from the first notes, I couldn't move. I wasn't sure what to make of what I was seeing. I'd heard two man bands who rocked it but this was a whole new world...I had no idea how to pin point what they were doing. Later, my friend Jeremy put it best by saying "They're like an organic take on Gabber"...Might not be quite on the nose but it's pretty close...Even though I was still trying to figure out if I liked them or not, I at least knew it stirred my interest enough to merit buying their tour 7 inch...I listened to it 4 times in a row and put it on a cassette, and until I found "Ride The Skies", it the tape stayed in the deck of my beat up 1985 camry.

Since then, I've seen them another 2 times, a headlining show at the Smell where they taped part of "The Power Of Salad..." and when they were on "Oops, the tour" at the Glassghouse in Pomona,Ca.
Can't wait till they come out again...

I haven't really heard much by them. I love their album covers though, especially Ride the Skies. Who do they sound like if anybody? Any album suggestions for them?

hella, chavel de frise. kinda.

I think Hella's on a whole other planet than Lightning Bolt aside the concept of a two man band...Well,except for recently...The new Hella (That came with the live DVD) has keyboard and bass, sounds really good, but "Hold Your Horse is" (Their first full length)still stands out as a favorite.
"Hypermagic Mountain" (LB's most recent release) has almost nothing but stellar moments, except the 10+ minute piece they put near the middle...It might grow on me with time but for now, it seems a bit self indulgent...